Tuesday 28th July: Pagham Harbour

Another full day of birding, meeting Becky at Pagham Harbour. We started at Church Norton around 8am looking out over the harbour on a falling tide. There were good numbers of Sandwich Tern roosting on the grass beside the harbour wall, and these gradually spread across the mudbanks as they were exposed as the tide receded, leaving a series of shallow channels. After some time, Little Terns began to appear, like dainty fairies, poised momentarily with brilliant white shining wings vertically aloft,  before plunging head down to the channel to capture a tasty fish. When roosting on the mud alongside the Sandwich Terns, they looked tiny in comparison, and their white foreheads and yellow bills contrasted clearly with the black head markings. We were only able to locate a single Common Tern here, in fact a juvenile, and were pleased to be able to successfully identify this, with assistance from the Collins bird app!

There were good numbers of both Curlew and Whimbrel present, and some obligingly posed alongside each other, allowing us to note the significant size difference, the ridiculously long bill of the Curlew in contrast to the shorter  one of the Whimbrel, and the distinctive white eye stripe of the Whimbrel.

There was a sizeable flock of Dunlin, most in black-bellied summer plumage, busily probing the mud, constantly moving, and skittishly taking flight at regular intervals. The regular Oystercatchers and Cormorants were about, and a few Ringed Plover, including some juveniles were picked out on the far bank. There were two Great-Crested Grebe in the water, still with rufous summer heads, and a single winter plumaged Grey Plover was just visible in the distance, along with a few Turnstones and plenty of Redshank.

At Ferry Pool we drew a blank, other than a small family of Shelduck. We continued on to Halsey’s Farm and walked across the fields to North Wall. A Kestrel was resting in a tree and many Little Egrets were in the shallow channel, but we could not locate any Warblers in the reedbeds.

On the island within the salt marsh and mudflats, we were thrilled to at last obtain some very good views of fourteen Cattle Egret, many with stunning orange-tinged feathering, and also some juveniles with Black bills still, presumably fledged within the harbour this year, in the first successful breeding at this location. A few noisy Black-tailed Godwits flew over and landed in Breech Pool and at White’s Creek we were pleased to add a Greenshank and Spotted Redshank moulting from summer to winter plumage.

A long but enjoyable day

Black-tailed Godwits

Cattle Egrets